Civilian Casualties

As Israeli soldiers continue to battle the Hezbollah terrorists in south Lebanon, the nation of Israel has been criticized for the unintentional deaths of Lebanese civilians and others. Civilian deaths are a tragic side effect of war and history tells us that this has always been the case. During the Allied bombing of Dresden, Germany, in World War II, incendiary bombs not only destroyed the military targets at which they were aimed, but those horrible weapons also killed at least 25,000 to 35,000 people.

President Obama delivered a major foreign policy speech Thursday in which he called for scaling back the use of drones to prevent civilian casualties. He also called for more steps to reduce the population of suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay prison, and for de-emphasizing military action in fighting terrorism in favor of diplomacy, intelligence sharing and foreign aid. After more than a decade since President Bush launched the war on terror following the 9-11 attacks, is it time for a new strategy?

BEIJING -- China offered indirect endorsement of U.S.-British attacks on Afghanistan in a cautiously worded statement Monday condemning "any form" of terrorism but calling for targeted strikes to avoid civilian casualties. "China opposes terrorism of any form, hoping that relevant military strikes on terrorism should be targeted at specific objectives, so as to avoid hurting innocent civilians," the Xinhua news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying. "China hopes that peace be resumed as soon as possible," the unidentified spokesman added.

Seeking to reduce civilian casualties and collateral damage, the Pentagon will soon deploy a new generation of drones the size of model planes, packing tiny explosive warheads that can be delivered with pinpoint accuracy. Errant drone strikes have been blamed for killing and injuring scores of civilians throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan , giving the U.S. government a black eye as it targets elusive terrorist groups. The Predator and Reaper drones deployed in these regions typically carry 100-pound laser-guided Hellfire missiles or 500-pound GPS-guided smart bombs that can reduce buildings to smoldering rubble.

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan --A leader of the Afghan opposition Sunday urged U.S. military forces to avoid killing more civilians during airstrikes on Afghanistan. "There have been some casualties, and we are most concerned about it," Abdullah Abdullah, the Northern Alliance's foreign minister, said in the Tajikistan capital of Dushanbe. The Taliban says 900 civilians have been killed since the strikes began on Oct. 7. U.S. military officials deny the contention.

Russian warplanes have hit civilian targets in at least 11 air raids on the rebel region of Chechnya during the past three days, foreign journalists have confirmed, despite President Boris Yeltsin's vow to avoid civilian casualties.Journalists visiting the Chechen town of Shali Wednesday found the remains of cluster bombs dropped Tuesday on the town's hospital, central bazaar and cemetery. Russian jets have killed at least 78 people and wounded about 200 in rural areas south of Grozny, the Chechen capital, according to combined counts of the journalists and a Chechen hospital director.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- As British troops Monday restored some electrical power and distributed gasoline in the southern, riot-torn city of Basra, a U.S. soldier was killed and two others injured in a bomb attack in northern Iraq. U.S. military officials also were criticized for a string of recent shootings of Iraqis, including two police officers who were killed by U.S. troops Saturday. In one incident, U.S. forces killed several Iraqi civilians Thursday evening, reportedly as they drove their vehicles in a darkened neighborhood in northern Baghdad.

BIG BATTLE. Rebels in northern and western Afghanistan killed hundreds of Soviet and government soldiers in a battle last week. Diplomatic sources said Tuesday the Soviets bombed Paghman, resulting in civilian casualties and damage to surrounding villages. The Soviet attacks appeared to be in retaliation for recent rebel successes.

Afghanistan KABUL -- An operation the American military at first described as a "precision strike" instead killed 13 Afghan civilians and only three militants, the U.S. said Saturday, three days after sending a general to the site to investigate. Civilian casualties have been a huge source of friction between the U.S. and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has demanded that U.S. and NATO operations kill no civilians and that Afghan soldiers take part in missions so as to help prevent unwanted deaths.

JERUSALEM -- Special legal teams will defend Israeli soldiers against potential war-crimes charges stemming from civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday, promising the country would "fully back" those who fought in the three-week offensive. The move reflected growing concerns by Israel that officers could be subject to international prosecution, despite the army's claims that Hamas militants caused the civilian casualties by staging attacks from residential areas.

KABUL - Afghan government investigators assertedWednesday that foreign troops had killed 10 civilians in a raid this week, including eight students under the age of 18. Western military officials called the charge unsubstantiated and urged a joint investigation. The deaths, which took place Sunday in Kunar, a remote northeastern province, sparked street protests Wednesday in Kabul, the capital, and in the eastern city of Jalalabad. "Obama, take out your troops!"

KABUL - An Afghan provincial governor said Monday that an apparent U.S. airstrike killed 10 Afghan civilians, and President Hamid Karzai-who has harshly criticized such incidents in the past - ordered an immediate investigation. If the reports are borne out, it would be the most serious instance in months of Western forces mistakenly killing Afghan civilians. Civilian casualties at the hands of foreign forces have fallen dramatically in the last six months, after Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, top commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, issued strict rules of engagement limiting the use of force if noncombatants are thought to be in the area.

The new U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, three-star Army Lt. Gen. Stan McChrystal, widely praised for his leadership in the capture of Saddam Hussein nearly six years ago, is about to change the rules of engagement for coalition troops. The new order imposed by McChrystal -- who from 2003 through 2008 ran the Joint Special Operations Command, which oversees the militiary's secret special ops units --will be classified, and not open to the public. But most are reporting that this change will involve limiting air strikes to the most dire of circumstances.

Afghanistan KABUL -- An operation the American military at first described as a "precision strike" instead killed 13 Afghan civilians and only three militants, the U.S. said Saturday, three days after sending a general to the site to investigate. Civilian casualties have been a huge source of friction between the U.S. and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has demanded that U.S. and NATO operations kill no civilians and that Afghan soldiers take part in missions so as to help prevent unwanted deaths.

-- Ghazi Gul keeps the pictures of the dead in a pocket near his heart-- his father, two brothers, a cousin, a nephew. Gul, 25, works for the Afghan intelligence service, fighting militants on behalf of the U.S.-backed government. But now he blames the U.S. for the deaths of eight of his relatives, also including his mother and two nieces--and he wants revenge. "I will continue to serve my government," said Gul, who moved to a refugee camp near Mehtarlam after an American raid on his village last month.

William Wood has been the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan since April 2007. It has been a period of such deterioration in security that President Barack Obama has called for a new U.S. strategy and a doubling of American forces deployed here. Obama's special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday to discuss the plan. On the eve of Holbrooke's trip, Tribune Newspapers sat down with Wood to talk about the Taliban insurgency, civilian casualties blamed on the U.S. and Karzai's troubled rule.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghans can no longer accept or understand civilian deaths from international military operations, President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday after officials said 51 villagers were killed during a U.S.-led offensive against the Taliban in western Afghanistan. Despite claims that women and children were killed, the U.S. military maintained it had no reports of civilian casualties. But students staged a fourth day of protests against America.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- At least six Afghan civilians were killed and seven were wounded in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan's central province of Uruzgan, officials said Saturday. Many of the casualties in the Friday night raid on a village were women and children, said a provincial government official who declined to be identified. U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said he was unaware of any civilian casualties.

JERUSALEM -- Special legal teams will defend Israeli soldiers against potential war-crimes charges stemming from civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday, promising the country would "fully back" those who fought in the three-week offensive. The move reflected growing concerns by Israel that officers could be subject to international prosecution, despite the army's claims that Hamas militants caused the civilian casualties by staging attacks from residential areas.

We in the West, who place at the center of our discourse the rights and freedom of the individual, find ourselves up against a school of thought that has elevated suicide to a place in society that amounts to nothing less than the worship of death. So it comes as no surprise to see Hamas launching missiles from inside hospitals, schools and crowded residential buildings. It is not merely that the Hamas activists display a wanton disregard for the lives of their own people. They actually want increased civilian casualties.